As one of the hard-templating methods, MgO-templating was employed to recycle cotton to produce activated carbon with magnesium acetate as MgO precursor. Results showed that cotton carbonized while magnesium acetate decomposed to nanoscale MgO particles based on thermogravimetric and X-ray diffraction analysis. Carbonized residuals of cotton were able to replicate the MgO morphology thus creating pores. The size of MgO varied with impregnation ratio, treatment temperature, and time. Overall, the optimum conditions were MgO/cotton impregnation ratio 0.25, temperature 800 °C, and treatment time 60 min. Cotton-based activated carbon thus produced manifested surface area and total pore volume of 1139 m2/g and 0.85 cm3/g respectively. Both micropores and mesopores were detected based on iodine, methylene blue adsorption values, and N2 adsorption-desorption studies.
Keywords: Cotton; Hard templating; Magnesium acetate; MgO precursor; Pore structure.